Reciprocating floor conveyors are a relatively recent developement. Basically, they comprise at least one group of at least three elongated floor members and a hydraulic drive system which operates to drive at least a majority of the floor members in unison in the desired conveying direction, and to retract them individually. Systems are in use in which all of the floor members are driven in unison, in the desired conveying direction, and are then individually retracted sequentially. It is also been proposed to drive a majority of the floor slat members in the desired conveying direction while at the same time retracting the remaining floor slat members. The present invention has application with both types of systems.
For background purposes, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,143,760, granted Mar. 19, 1979; U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,963, granted Mar. 30, 1969; U.S. Pat. No. 4,184,587, granted Jan. 22, 1980; all to Olaf A. Hallstrom. Reference is also made to my U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,474,285; 4,492,303; 4,508,211; 4,580,678; and to my copending application Ser. No. 477,767 Reduced Size Drive/Frame Assembly for Reciprocating Floor Conveyor, filed Dec. 11, 1984. Application Ser. No. 477,767 now abandoned was published under the Patent Cooperation Treaty as International Publication No. WO84,03686, on Sept. 27, 1984. The system is also prior art by the fact of its commercial sale and use.
Earlier forms of reciprocating floor conveyors are disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 2,629,504, granted in February of 1953 to Peterson; by U.S. Pat. No. 2,973,856, granted in March of 1961 to Brooks; by U.S. Pat. No. 3,534,875, granted in October of 1970 to Hallstrom; by U.S. Pat. No. 3,905,290, granted September 16, 1975 to Robert A. Caughey; and by West German Patent Publication No. 1,296,087, published in May of 1969. These, patents are not particularly pertinent to the subject invention and require no further comment.